Exaltation
by primadonna001
Summary: ... some feel rapture but not such true joy are reaping As they who watch o'er what they love while sleeping... I invite everyone to read, but JE shippers particularly.


Exaltation

"**The moonlight shows us for who we really are..**"

_Disclaimer: I do not have the pleasure of owning these characters – that honour goes to Ted and Terry._

_This is a one shot inspired by a few stanzas of Lord Byron's Don Juan. I included them at the bottom; read 196-197 particularly. I might expand this beyond a one shot if there is any response, because this poem has decidedly become my muse. And I apologize for the clichés etc; it is a work in progress. Enjoy!_

A narrow gleam of moon light shone through the rust encrusted porthole. As much as she tried to keep the cabin in a general state of cleanliness, she shied away from washing the actual ship.

"She's a part of the sea, love," Jack had whispered into her ear one day. "You can't wash the salt off of her anymore than you could off me." And that was what had always perplexed Elizabeth. In all of her years knowing Jack she had never seen him take a bath, yet he never seemed to succumb to the stale, lecherous odour which seemed to be ingrained in the pores of the rest of the crew.

As she shifted slightly in her sleep, 'Lisabeth closed her eyes as she inadvertently absorbed the scent she had just been contemplating. A mixture of rhum, salt, exoticism ("those spices from India", she thought), and something that came solely from him. Freedom. Opening her eyes slightly, an unconscious grin (like that of a certain Captain) began forming upon her still swollen lips.

Only while sleeping could she watch him like this, as only when his mind has removed itself from the waking world did his vulnerability and – dare she say it – innocence reveal themselves. She doubted anyone else could ever understand the connection she felt most intensely during these few secluded hours, behind secure cabin doors.

Of course, during the day she had opportunity abounding to watch her heart's desire; in fact he would often strut across the deck just for her pleasure. From his token hat to well worn boots, he walked oozing an unbreakable hubris which she has seen shattered only once, many years ago…

However this she now knew to be an act – and that made her love him all the more. Love, a strange emotion for pirates, yet she knew they shared it all the same. With Will it had been something entirely different. Love became a burden, representing a future she had begun to resent. But with Jack – it had sprung up organically from one of their many verbal sparring matches, after too much time spent repressing it.

It was built on more than just friendship, or a childish crush. It was mutual respect juxtaposed with hatred; animal lust coupled with the ability to bring the other up towards the heavens, and down to the depth's of Hades' lair.

He had the ability to make her feel. He had saved her from the suffocation awaiting her the moment her head turned towards land. She had long ago discovered he was more than just a means to an end – but that she wanted to forever seek that horizon standing by his side. With little argument he had admitted it was what he wanted as well, for only they could satisfy one another's insatiable hunger.

"After all, peas in a pod, darling."

As he leaned against her and she ran a solacing hand across his external scars, the moonlight shifted across the cabin as the ship steered into the wind.

It was moments like this that proved her decision. That made all the pain and heartache caused to others (and one another) justified somehow; if only for these instances of true elation.

Lizzie slowly drifted back into a peaceful, slumber – her dreams lit by the moon and distant roar of a bonfire. As she lost herself to the subconscious, across her lips came the words of a story learned in a childhood which now seemed a lifetime away… "There lies the thing we love with all its errors and all its charms; like death without its terrors."

**Don Juan**  
They look upon each other, and their eyes  
Gleam in the moonlight; and her white arm clasps  
Round Juan's head, and his around her lies  
Half buried in the tresses which it grasps;  
She sits upon his knee, and drinks his sighs,  
He hers, until they end in broken gasps;  
And thus they form a group that's quite antique,  
Half naked, loving, natural, and Greek.

195  
And when those deep and burning moments pass'd,  
And Juan sunk to sleep within her arms,  
She slept not, but all tenderly, though fast,  
Sustain'd his head upon her bosom's charms;  
And now and then her eye to heaven is cast,  
And then on the pale cheek her breast now warms,  
Pillow'd on her o'erflowing heart, which pants  
With all it granted, and with all it grants.

196  
**An infant when it gazes on a light,  
A child the moment when it drains the breast,  
A devotee when soars the Host in sight,  
An Arab with a stranger for a guest,  
A sailor when the prize has struck in fight,  
A miser filling his most hoarded chest,  
Feel rapture; but not such true joy are reaping  
As they who watch o'er what they love while sleeping.**

197  
For there it lies so tranquil, so beloved,  
All that it hath of life with us is living;  
So gentle, stirless, helpless, and unmoved,  
And all unconscious of the joy 't is giving;  
All it hath felt, inflicted, pass'd, and proved,  
Hush'd into depths beyond the watcher's diving:  
**There lies the thing we love with all its errors  
And all its charms, like death without its terrors**.

Note: Exaltation means rapture; morbid bliss; rising to godlike status; and the flight of birds (larks) rising. Just to show my interpretation of the passage.


End file.
